Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, War
Minor: Racism
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
I listened to the audiobook on Libby (thank you Libby and libraries woohooooo), and though I cringed at the narrator's voice for the older male characters, the rest of the narration was excellent!
I listened to the audiobook on Libby (thank you Libby and libraries woohooooo), and though I cringed at the narrator's voice for the older male characters, the rest of the narration was excellent!
- childhood friends to enemies to lovers
- sapphic yearning and angst
- vampire hunter x vampire (called "reaper" in this world)
- teaming up to solve a mystery / forced proximity
- set during 1920s Harlem Renaissance (though I do wish the setting was a bit more immersive and came through stronger!)
I think the audio was the way to go with this book, as I could really feel the emotion from the narrator. I think a lot of exposition is sort of just what I expect in a first book in a duology/series, so I didn't mind it in here. I thought Dennings did a great job of providing the historical context of why Layla & Elise had SO much tension between them. Their "enemies to lovers" history actually made me wonder if they should even become lovers hahaha. I was like, 'Ummmm maybe she is not the one for you.'
I appreciated the commentary on racism and classism that Dennings weaved into here, as well as how it relates to the history of the reapers. I would have loved maybe a tiny bit more world building so that 1920s Harlem could come to life, but I will hopefully see more of that in the next book, which I will read :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Gaslighting
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Medical content
Minor: Slavery, Torture, Death of parent
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I just didn't find the book engaging. I put it down for a few weeks (months? I can't remember) but it still didn't interest me when I picked it back up. It sounds interesting but it's just not for me.
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mystery stories are hard. End thesis.
In some ways, this is the diversity I've been asking for for years from the largely white, largely heteronormative world of romance stories, but This Ravenous Fate just wasn't an especially standout debut novel, and that really pains me to say. I'd love to see more like it, hopefully something that can do vampirism-as-colonial-fallout better. That's an element I genuinely liked about it, but it's an incredibly flat story that makes sudden leaps over what felt like should have been the meat of the romance, only to deliver halfhearted sexual tension and a shockingly low urgency mystery investigation, the latter of which is also barely on page. It's just a very messy book, which is to some extent to be expected as a debut, but I can't really praise it on those grounds either.
As a dramatic romance, it's a story where everyone is always crying and covered in blood and screaming at each other one moment, and the next they're fine, because there isn't enough room in the story to let the emotions sit. I wasn't especially sold on the wlw elements of the romance, as a longtime F/F fanfic reader, but hey, it was serviceable, just rushed in all the wrong places. I'd have liked if Elise's feelings for another woman were relevant in any way to the class divide between her and Layla.
As an enemies to lovers story, can I just say, thank god there's some kind of interfaction conflict and personal history here? So many 'enemies' to lovers stories are bait and switch instalust/instalove, or about how Jenny from down the road is actually your nemesis because she burns trash at 10pm or something. This actually wasn't one of those, hallelujah. I'll echo some of the other reviews and say they move from wanting to hurt each other to wanting to jump each other without much to make that shift believable to me, besides realizing they find each other hot. Also, again, we don't get much of what they were like beforehand to build on.
As a mystery, we skip most of the investigative elements to fit the romance moments in, but end up having to have the twists infodumped to us by conveniently placed members of the supporting cast, because there isn't room for big reveals to have weight.
As a period piece, 1920s Harlem was relevant to the plot, but never felt like it slipped fully into focus. It's not one of those stories that could be performed as a play by LARPers in a big field in any particular country, but I never truly felt transported to the setting and time period either, because there was never time for that. What descriptions and scene setting that do exist, and I admit I found myself skimming quite often due to being bored by the plainness of the prose, aren't especially lush or insightful to the time, which is a shame, because the concept was quite fun.
Together, these elements are really poorly integrated, and harpoon one another's ability to move me. If anything stood out, I liked the pervasive sense of quasi-religious black self hatred. Where other themes failed, Layla's guilt over being a reaper was very well realized. One of the tools typically used by the rich to control marginalized populations really is to make them hate themselves, then each other, and then maybe as a distant last resort, whoever is directly above them on the class ladder.
It did have a plot though! At least there's that. It wasn't an endless, interminable road trip to nowhere, and while the author's grasp of sensuality was a bit lacking for me, it wasn't completely choking the life out of the pacing. I think maybe Hayley Dennings was just a trifle overambitious with this one, and the individual story elements ended up crowding each other out. I'd still rather this be making seven figures than slop like Quicksilver.
In some ways, this is the diversity I've been asking for for years from the largely white, largely heteronormative world of romance stories, but This Ravenous Fate just wasn't an especially standout debut novel, and that really pains me to say. I'd love to see more like it, hopefully something that can do vampirism-as-colonial-fallout better. That's an element I genuinely liked about it, but it's an incredibly flat story that makes sudden leaps over what felt like should have been the meat of the romance, only to deliver halfhearted sexual tension and a shockingly low urgency mystery investigation, the latter of which is also barely on page. It's just a very messy book, which is to some extent to be expected as a debut, but I can't really praise it on those grounds either.
As a dramatic romance, it's a story where everyone is always crying and covered in blood and screaming at each other one moment, and the next they're fine, because there isn't enough room in the story to let the emotions sit. I wasn't especially sold on the wlw elements of the romance, as a longtime F/F fanfic reader, but hey, it was serviceable, just rushed in all the wrong places. I'd have liked if Elise's feelings for another woman were relevant in any way to the class divide between her and Layla.
As an enemies to lovers story, can I just say, thank god there's some kind of interfaction conflict and personal history here? So many 'enemies' to lovers stories are bait and switch instalust/instalove, or about how Jenny from down the road is actually your nemesis because she burns trash at 10pm or something. This actually wasn't one of those, hallelujah. I'll echo some of the other reviews and say they move from wanting to hurt each other to wanting to jump each other without much to make that shift believable to me, besides realizing they find each other hot. Also, again, we don't get much of what they were like beforehand to build on.
As a mystery, we skip most of the investigative elements to fit the romance moments in, but end up having to have the twists infodumped to us by conveniently placed members of the supporting cast, because there isn't room for big reveals to have weight.
As a period piece, 1920s Harlem was relevant to the plot, but never felt like it slipped fully into focus. It's not one of those stories that could be performed as a play by LARPers in a big field in any particular country, but I never truly felt transported to the setting and time period either, because there was never time for that. What descriptions and scene setting that do exist, and I admit I found myself skimming quite often due to being bored by the plainness of the prose, aren't especially lush or insightful to the time, which is a shame, because the concept was quite fun.
Together, these elements are really poorly integrated, and harpoon one another's ability to move me. If anything stood out, I liked the pervasive sense of quasi-religious black self hatred. Where other themes failed, Layla's guilt over being a reaper was very well realized. One of the tools typically used by the rich to control marginalized populations really is to make them hate themselves, then each other, and then maybe as a distant last resort, whoever is directly above them on the class ladder.
It did have a plot though! At least there's that. It wasn't an endless, interminable road trip to nowhere, and while the author's grasp of sensuality was a bit lacking for me, it wasn't completely choking the life out of the pacing. I think maybe Hayley Dennings was just a trifle overambitious with this one, and the individual story elements ended up crowding each other out. I'd still rather this be making seven figures than slop like Quicksilver.
adventurous
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A great premise and world held back by repetitive scenes and a mystery that was somehow both easily predictable and nonsensically convoluted. A very messy and unfulfilling read that's conclusion sacrifices closure for shameless sequel bait. The two leads were compelling, but not enough to save it for me. Plus the audio direction on the audiobook was sometimes baffling: strange emphases on the wrong words and never enough pauses between scene breaks, making transitions confusing to follow.
Hopefully the next novel is better.
Hopefully the next novel is better.
